The following comment was left on a blog post (by somebody calling himself Barack Hussein Obama Sadaam) that I wrote a while ago, questioning whether or not racism in America had increased since Obama became president:

“I think that racism is increasing.

Minorities act like they want us to be racist to them.

Obama supports the NBA, which has some of the worst (dangerous) black people in the world.

Black leaders, such as NBA superstars, need to lead by example if blacks want racism to go away. I do not think blacks want racism to go away though.

Solution: Have all newborn black babies be adopted by intelligent white people. This will get rid of their terrible language of ebonics along with helping them succeed in life.”

This was my response: (more…)

I’m trying something new – every now and again, I’m just going to post random thoughts. Here’s my first attempt:

1. Enough of the John Terry story already. Who. Gives. A. Shit? He cheated on his wife, so fucking what? Half the country are cheating on their spouses as we speak.

2. I’m looking forward to the Chelsea v Arsenal game on Sunday. I hope the Arses spank Chelsea.

3. I have two Christmas presents still in the boot of my car that I haven’t posted off. I must do it today. Really.

4. I’m still dying to see Avatar. I blame TTG for us not having seen it yet.

5. I love Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs on Talksport. I especially love Andy’s bitterness with regards to all things Chelsea.

6. Blogging is slowly but surely becoming a drag, I wonder if I can keep it up for the next year.

7. It’s my birthday soon, I think I need another bag, maybe some shoes, and some boots.

8. How dare ABC fucking cancel Ugly Betty. HOW VERY DARE THEY!!!??!

9. I wonder when Rush Limbaugh last had sex with his wife?

10. What does it say about me that I love watching shows such as One Tree Hill and Glee?

Wow, that was better than a therapist’s couch. You guys should try it.

I do love Margaret and Helen’s blog. Those two old ladies talk so much sense.

Whether they are for real or not, who cares, but whoever they are, they have to be the most amusing, startlingly perceptive, forthright political bloggers out there. I love how they get right to the heart of the matter.

Their latest log is entitled “The Elephant In The Room Is A Kangaroo” and starts: (more…)

(not really)

Is there something in the water? in the air?

A 26 year old Connecticut woman is found dead after giving birth to what appear to be full term triplets–and her mother doesn’t think the woman knew she was pregnant. WTF? Really?

An Oregon couple is found guilty in the negligence death of their son. The couple believes in faith healing, and even though they were present when their granddaughter died a few years ago through failed faith healing, they wouldn’t seek medical help for their son. They plan to appeal, by the way.

Honestly now, what the hell?

I guess the majority of you have already heard about the Macmillan v Amazon hatefest, huh?

Well, for those who haven’t, this is the short version:

1. Macmillan Publishing want to solely dictate and fix ebook prices up to $15, and they don’t want retailers involved other than to sell them.

2. Amazon weren’t happy with that so told them to fuck off, by removing the ‘Buy It Now’ buttons from all Macmillan titles.

3. Some authors became angry and blamed Amazon.

4. Some bird over at DA called Rebecca, took it quite personally because she hates, HATES, I tell you, e-books, and wont be shopping at Amazon again because they are depriving her of print books, just to win an argument about ebooks, which she HATES by the way.

5. Amazon gives in, because they want to be able to offer their customers Macmillan titles, what with them being one of the six big publishing houses out there.

That’s about it, right? (more…)

Well, look at what we have here, apparently RWA have found a way to still stay friends with HQN, after taking away their eligible publisher status in a stand-off akin to the one that took place at the Alamo back in eighteen something or other. I can’t believe it took them so damned long:

Taking into account emerging trends in publishing that may offer opportunities to writers, the task force recommended that RWA adopt methods used by other trade shows and conventions and to shift its method of evaluating publishers as a whole to evaluating publishers by divisions, imprints, or lines.

Under this revised method, RWA will extend invitations to a wide pool of publishers. Invitees may only represent their non-subsidy/non-vanity publishing programs (imprints, divisions, or lines) at RWA’s conference. Space for spotlights, workshops, and booksignings will be allocated to lines, imprints, or divisions that best meet the requirements for “Qualifying Markets.” This new process of evaluation will likely increase opportunities for small presses and e-presses that previously have been excluded.

Of course I’m not surprised, I knew RWA wouldn’t be able to stick to their principles, they need HQN more than HQN needs them. In the words of Mrs G:

RWA 0 – Harlequin 1

I hate to say I told ya so, so I’m just gonna post what my cynical self wrote back in November:

I’m with Mrs Giggles, I wonder how long it will be before the RWA change the terms of publisher eligibility in order to welcome Harlequin back into the fold?

Now let’s wait and see how long it takes before they ‘invite’ HQN back to the fold.

Via Dear Author

I was *this* close to unleash a couple of bitter rants on all of you, when I get this:

Now I’m smiling. Thank you, V, you mood-saver you!

Once again, I had a load of posts on my Google Reader to catch up on, so here are some of the more noteworthy ones.

1. Apparently Avatar has made it to the top spot for the sixth week, and has now grossed $552m in the US, which means that it will probably now eclipse Titanic ($600m ) to become the biggest box office hit ever.
On the other hand, The Lovely Bones isn’t faring so well. It’s possible that people don’t want to watch a film where the main protag is a little girl who was raped and murdered. Shocker.

2. RRRJessica is back from South Africa, and she has pictures.

3. Dear Author has news of more ‘white-washing’ going on at Bloomsbury. Remember the uproar over the cover of Justine Larbalestier’s Liar, and how the black protag somehow took on a white face on the cover? Well it seems that this is becoming a trend. Bloomsbury seems to hate black people on covers. The book that has been white-washed this time is Jaclyn Dolamore’s Magic Under Glass. (more…)

Last week over here in England, two young brothers were jailed for subjecting two other boys, aged nine and eleven to a prolonged brutal attack. The boys themselves were aged ten and eleven at the time.

This is an excerpt of a news report about the attack from September 2009

Two young brothers are facing life in custody for beating, burning and sexually assaulting two boys aged nine and 11. (more…)

As some of you may remember, I recently opened an Etsy store…

[shameless plug]

[/shameless plug]

*cough*

Erm… Yes. Anyway…

Naturally, I spend a bit of time over there, drooling over many wondrous and wonderful things. It was during one of these ah… periods of contemplation, that I discovered an amazing store…

Be warned that you are likely to spend a long time there, and as likely to come back repeatedly to admire the stock. Don’t blame me for the time suck, okay?

The store name is abitabite and below is an example of her stock. (more…)